The scene starts with a view of a serene lake with cloudy skies above, still water below, and the camera pans down a wooden dock toward the lake. Suddenly, someone comes splashing out of the water, gasping for air and clawing at the dock in a disheveled suit. He climbs out of the water, drags himself through the sand and takes off running through the woods as he's chased by a motorcycle and Chevrolet Camaro that are quickly closing in on him.

No, this isn't a new James Bond movie — it's a campaign ad.

In an unlikely race, five pairs of candidates are running for Clemson University's Undergraduate Student Government and some of them are using unique techniques to attract student voters. Kyle Brady, who starred in the three-minute film and is in the running for the presidency, said a friend posed the idea to him last weekend.

"We kind of sat down and he told me about this opening scene where I just pop out of the water, and I was like, 'Man this is a cool idea, we have to do it,'" Brady said. "We found a guy with the motorcycle, found a guy with a cool car and it just happened."

Undergraduates elect a slate, president and vice president, who run as a team. Due to the large number of teams, there will be two rounds of voting — a primary voting session will be open to students online through TigerQuest beginning at midnight Wednesday and will remain open until midnight Thursday. The top two pairs will be announced on Friday and a second, final vote will be cast on March 1.

Joey Wilson, a Clemson senior and the current student body president, said this year's candidates face unique challenges that he and his vice president didn't face. Since he ran against only one other team, going through the voting process twice was never an issue, he said.

"I think that made it a little easier because we only had to worry about getting people to vote once," Wilson said.

During last year's election, 5,197 votes were cast, Wilson said. That's about 32 percent of the undergraduate student population.

Getting students to understand that voting in this election is important can be a challenge, McDonald said, and by making themes like inclusivity and transparency a priority, student governments can appeal to those who feel left out.

"The presidential election is what inspired me to run. It was a pretty divisive campaign and it sparked a lot of dialogue at Clemson," McDonald said. "That really inspired me that I wanted to run to make Clemson feel like an inclusive place for everyone."

"We need to make this university a place for all students," McDonald said. "We want students to say, 'This is my Clemson experience, I enjoyed it here and I see myself as part of the Clemson Family.' "